1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus in which a liquid is discharged from a discharge port onto a recording medium.
2. Description of Related Art
In known printers which have been developed to reduce ink bleed of dots formed on a sheet, a pretreatment liquid is applied to target areas in advance of application of ink to agglomerate or precipitate pigments contained in the ink.
In such known printers, when an image forming region is jammed with sheets, the pretreatment liquid applied onto the sheets increasingly adheres to a side surface of an ink discharging head, and the adhered pretreatment liquid transfers to a discharge surface and contacts the ink. In addition, even when sheet jams did not occur, a surface of a sheet onto which the pretreatment liquid has been applied contacts the discharge surface, which brings the pretreatment liquid into contact with ink on the discharge surface. In such a case, agglomerated or precipitated pigments of the ink partially or entirely close the discharge port, which significantly reduces ink discharge properties. Similarly in printers having a plurality of heads for discharging different color inks, an ink applied onto a sheet in advance adheres to a side surface or discharge surface of a head for discharging a different color ink causing a reduction in the quality of images due to color mixture.